New Jersey State Parks: Guard, Gold Star and Disabled Veteran Beach Permits

Park benefits in New Jersey are narrower for veterans than the published summaries suggest. Free admission. N.J.S.A. 13:1L-12(a) bars the Department of Environmental Protection from charging an admission fee to a resident 62 or older, a resident "who is totally disabled", or an active member of the New Jersey National Guard who has completed initial training. N.J.S.A. 13:1L-12.1 adds anyone holding a licence or ID with the Gold Star Family designation, and any veteran entering "during an event held by a veterans' organization", with no facilities fee for the organization. Disabled veterans. Subsection (b), added by P.L.2019, c.398, gives a resident honorably discharged from active service with a service-connected disability "of any degree" a permit to operate a motor vehicle on a state park beach free of charge, including replacements and renewals. That is the beach buggy permit used for surf fishing at places such as Island Beach State Park, and it is valuable. It is not admission. The Army benefits library says honorably discharged resident veterans with a service-connected disability rating get free entry to state parks under N.J.S.A. 13:1L-12a; that subsection does not mention veterans. A veteran who is totally disabled qualifies on that ground, as any resident would. What we could not check. The Department of Environmental Protection's parks and fees pages sit behind a bot filter that refused automated reading, so we could not confirm whether the department offers disabled veterans more by policy than the statute requires. Ask at the park office with your VA letter. Veterans' events. The free entry for a veteran at a veterans' organization event uses a broad definition: a resident discharged honorably or under general honorable conditions from the Armed Forces, a reserve component or any state's National Guard, or an honorably discharged World War II Merchant Mariner.